---
title: "In defence of bureaucracy"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/in-defence-of-bureaucracy-lpaihfvh5
source_url: https://blog.ploeh.dk/2026/04/20/in-defence-of-bureaucracy/
type: article
source: "ploeh blog"
published: 2026-04-20T05:53:25.768Z
updated: 2026-04-20T05:53:47.610Z
tags: ["company-culture"]
reading_time: 7
upvotes: 8
comments: 1
language: en
---

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# In defence of bureaucracy

**[ploeh blog](https://daily.dev/sources/ploeh)** · 7 min read · 8 upvotes · 1 comments

## Summary

Mark Seemann makes a case for selective bureaucracy in software development, arguing that some structured processes — like moving tickets, writing commit messages, and maintaining Architecture Decision Records — reduce interruptions, improve knowledge retention, and increase team bus factor. The argument draws on historical origins of bureaucracy as a fairness mechanism and applies the logic to software teams: oral-only cultures may move fast short-term but suffer long-term from knowledge loss when contributors leave. The goal isn't more bureaucracy, but trimming it to keep only the parts that genuinely help.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://blog.ploeh.dk/2026/04/20/in-defence-of-bureaucracy/>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@ezpie** · 3 upvotes

> just make tradeoffs honestly, it really depends on what you need and a lot of context, no one solution fits all problems you know?

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---

Tags: [#company-culture](https://daily.dev/tags/company-culture)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/in-defence-of-bureaucracy-lpaihfvh5)